40 Years Ago: Montrose Release Their Debut Album

In November of 1973, Montrose released their self-titled debut album, which overcame a slow sales start to become one of the more influential and beloved albums in hard rock history.

The band was named after guitarist Ronnie Montrose, who had previously played on albums from Van Morrison and the Edgar Winter Group. It also marked the recorded debut of singer Sammy Hagar, who would go on to worldwide fame as a solo act and singer for Van Halen.

After all these years, Hagar still looks back very fondly on ‘Montrose,’ which also featured bassist Bill Church and drummer Danny Carmassi. “Yes, I do feel a lot of stuff for that album,” he explained to us recently. “And when I hear something like ‘Rock Candy‘ or ‘Make it Last,’ you know, God I just sound like this young kid. I just can’t believe that I’m as old as I am when I hear it, because I don’t feel any different.”

Hagar and Montrose parted ways acrimoniously in 1975. Church was a member of Hagar’s solo band from 1976 right up till the time the singer joined Van Halen in 1985. Montrose continued experimenting with rock, fusion and other genres on Montrose, Gamma and solo records. All four original members of Montrose reunited for the song ‘Leaving the Warmth of the Womb‘ on Hagar’s 1997 post-Van Halen solo album ‘Marching to Mars.’

Hagar was also joined by his former bandmates for mini-Montrose sets during his recent ‘Four Decades of Rock’ tour. As he proudly notes, “I don’t quite sound the same, but I can still hit the notes, you know?”

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